BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (CMC) – Barbados police say they are treating the death of a cop as a road traffic death “until any other evidence comes to hand that we can treat it otherwise”.

Police confirmed that Antonio Rochester, 50, of the Marine Department, was struck by a vehicle on Wednesday and that a manhunt is on for the driver who fled the scene.

The police said the vehicle did not stop but “continued travelling a fair distance” from the scene of the incident in St Michael, south west of here, and that the driver of the vehicle then fled.

Rochester, with more than 30 years in the Barbados Police Force (BPF), was later pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders.

In a statement, Police Communications and Public Affairs Officer, Inspector Rodney Inniss, said many of his colleagues “are under the weather,” after they “received reports that a pedestrian was struck and that pedestrian turned out to be one of our own who lives in the area. He unfortunately died at the scene.

“It is very difficult to deal with at this time for both the police and the family members,” he said, paying condolences on behalf of the force to Rochester’s wife, children, and parents.

The police have since issued an urgent appeal to anyone who may have witnessed the accident with Inniss telling reporters that the incident is being treated as a road traffic death “until any other evidence comes to hand that we can treat it otherwise”.